FIFTEENTH CENTURY 89 
breeding-range, attracted by the fen lands of Cambridgeshire 
and South Lincoln; for Vermuyden, the Dutchman, had not 
yet drained the “ Great Level.” Even long after drainage had 
been begun, there still extended from Ely to the Wash some 
300,000 acres of marsh land, very tempting to aquatic birds. 
The Fowls called Rees.—The Fowls called Rees, which 
the larderer was evidently doubtful about, and which Pennant 
imagined to be to be Land-rails, are now known to have been 
Rufis and Reeves, but where could they have expected to 
get 2400 head of a species which was little more than a summer- 
migrant? Evidently Neville’s figures must not be accepted too 
literally, but must be taken in the sense of a general estimate. 
Identity of the bird called a Brewe.—At a great feast held 
in London in honour of King Richard IT., in September 1387, 
among “ The pultry ’ enumerated in “ the purviaunce,”’ we 
meet with “‘x dosen Curlewes, xij dosen Brewes.’’* The 
Brewe also comes into sundry documents of the fifteenth 
century, eg., Russell’s ‘‘ Boke of Nurture’’ (1452), and of 
the sixteenth century, e.g., on the occasion of the visit of 
Charles V. to England in 1522. At a later date there is 
some change in the name, which in 1605 is spelled Brue.{ It 
has generally been supposed that this bird was the Whimbrel, 
but names were used somewhat indiscriminately in those 
days, and very likely it sometimes served for the Godwit, 
as Mr. F. J. Stubbs has suggested.§ In the reign of Edward I. 
a brewe was valued at eighteen pence, and a Curlew at six- 
pence in 1275 and the same prices held good in 1384,|| which 
implies a decided culinary inferiority for the Curlew, which 
was either commoner or less appreciated. The name brewe 
may be synonymous with breve, 7.e., small or short. 
One of the receipts given in Cookery-books of the fifteenth 
century is for ‘‘ Brew rost,’’ of which the following version 
may be taken from ‘“‘ A noble boke off cookry ffor a prynce 
houssolde.”’ §-—Brew rost.—A Brewe, sley him in the mouthe 
* “ Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books’”’ (Early English Text Society, 
1848, p. 67). 
+ ‘Rutland Papers,” p. 76. Camden Soc. Publications, 1842. 
ft “ Archaeologia,” 1800, p. 341. 
§ ‘ Zoologist,” 1910, p. 154. 
|| Supra, p. 71. 
{ Edited by Mrs. A. Napier, 1882, p. 63. 
